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My grandparents were missionaries to northwest China. They planted a church in Xining, capital city of the Qinghai Province. The church was never large, and in 1949, my grandparents fled China because of the civil war. The Communist Party solidified its control of the mainland in 1950. It was widely assumed over the next three decades that the party had destroyed the church in Xining and throughout China. 

When my grandparents returned to the America, they pastored churches all across the states. These churches were small and in the lower middle class of the socioeconomic spectrum. My grandparents’ longest tenure at any of these churches was five years. I remember that church in Morro Bay, California. It is the only church my grandparents led that I ever attended. 

Were my grandparents successful ministers? If the measure of a successful ministry is the Three Bs –  buildings, bucks, and butts in the pews – the answer is surely no. But to my mind, this answer merely proves that there’s something wrong with the question. Success – especially success crassly defined – is not a biblical value. 

In 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, Paul identifies faithfulness as the correct biblical value to be pursued by ministers. 

So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 

Paul uses two words to describe ministers in these verses. The first is servants. In 1 Corinthians 3:5, the Greek word for servants is diakonoi, which referred to waiters. Here, however, the word is huperetas, which refers to a subordinate. The second is stewards, or as the NIV puts it, “those entrusted.” Both words connote the idea of responsibility to a superior for a specific task. In this case, ministers are responsible to Jesus Christ for the task of preaching “the secret things of God.” 

Those “secret things” – literally mysteries – aren’t really secret. They are the message of God’s wisdom in the cross of Jesus Christ (cf. 2:7), which Paul revealed to the Corinthians when he evangelized them. They are, in other words, the gospel itself – that “open secret” of God’s love for sinners. 

As servants of Christ and stewards of the gospel, ministers must keep their congregations focused on Jesus Christ. That is the test of their faithfulness. Unfortunately, the Corinthians’ focus switched off Christ and on to philosophical insight and rhetorical excellence. Those things are not as crass as buildings, bucks, and butts in the pews, but they are nonetheless just as wrongheaded because they make no room for “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (2:2). 

Were my grandparents faithful ministers? Yes. I believe in Jesus Christ because of their influence. So does my sister. So do our cousins. So do my father and his siblings. And in Xining, the church survived persecution and thrives today. My grandparents died not knowing these things. But they remained faithful anyway. 

Let us strive to do the same.